Listen: The Listening Project

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, BBC Radio’s Listening Project popped up on the radio with a rather interesting five minutes. The series is a collaboration with The British Library to collect conversations between ordinary people.

Stanley (80) and Sonja (73) met through a cycling club in 1959, married in a tunnel of wheels and yet now, one of them cycles little if at all. Sonja says:

Life got in the way of my bicycle and it ended up at the back of the garage.

Listen to Stanley and Sonja here.

Another old couple, Geoff and Midge (neither of whom disclose their age) also discuss cycling in their conversation (broadcast in November, 2012). In their case they both still cycle but who once cycled all over on a tandem. In their case Midge says:

I cannot imagine life without the bike now.

But it’s Geoff who can cycle much less than Midge, and he sounds jealous of the distances Midge can still cover.

Listen to Geoff and Midge here.

They’re both gentle and interesting conversations, as is the style of the series. There’s not really a hint of discussion of the experiences of what cycling as a life-long cyclist is really like (though Sonja happily notes there’s a cycletrack in reach of her and Stanley’s home) but these are a couple of charming and informative conversations all the same.